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Why do some relationships give us great joy and others become toxic? What role do we play in our relationships? Are our relationship skills weakening in the age of social media?

There are undoubtedly some people who seem to be more skilled at interpersonal relationships than others. But Lucy Beresford, Psychologies agony aunt, psychotherapist and author of Happy Relationships, at Home, Work & Play, believes that this isn't just down to lucky gifts from the gods or even down to a particular type of temperament, but because such people deploy particular ways of interacting with others which are successful.

Happy Relationships aims to share this wisdom, to help us understand how relationships in all areas of our lives can be a joy and not a chore.

Lucy speaks from her great experience not only in advising Psychologies readers on their dilemmas as their resident agony aunt, but from working in private practice in London, as well as in New Delhi, India.

"One of the key things that this book will try to show", says Lucy, "is that our difficulties in relationships will always say as much about us as they do about others. Unwittingly, we sabotage our relationships because of our own fears and hang-ups." So when relationships flounder or cause us distress, and especially when we find ourselves complaining endlessly about someone, we need to take a step back and see our own part in that relationship.

She can't turn frogs into princes, bosses into brown spaniels (not overnight...), or stop teenage hormones going awry, but in Happy Relationships Lucy aims to provide a helpful toolkit that can boost self-confidence, encourage understanding and empower us to be the best we can be in all our relationships.
Lucy Beresford is the Agony Aunt for the women's glossy Psychologies magazine and works as a psychotherapist in private practice and at The London Psychiatry Centre and Priory Hospital. She has also had three clinical sabbaticals in New Delhi, India. Lucy regularly reviews fiction for the Sunday Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator and Literary Review. Based in London, Lucy spent 10 years in Investment Banking in the City before leaving to write fiction and to retrain as a psychotherapist.